Life in Rural America

Tag: saving money

There is so much stuff going through my head it’s difficult to stay focused. There is the new gun ban being introduced by Dianne Feinstein, ammunition shortages, magazines shortages, Iran advancing its nuclear program, tension between the US and China increasing, and then there are the ever present tensions in the middle east.

A couple of days ago AIM surplus got a some DS Arms FN/FAL magazines in stock. They were $17.95 each, and I was seriously considering ordering some. Think about this, the gate I want for my chicken yard is $79.99 from Tractor Supply. For the price of 4 FN/FAL magazines plus shipping would have paid for the gate.

Which is more important, having extra FN/FAL magazines, or having a gate for the chicken yard? My wife and I get eggs from our chickens everyday. Will I be using my FN/FAL everyday? Its highly doubtful.

Walmart here in Jasper Texas got a shipment of 9mm in. Which is more important, buying an extra box of 9mm, or buying some T-post?

boogie2988 posted a very heartfelt video about growing up poor, and what its like to be poor.

We have two contrasting parts to the story, living poor because we have to, and living poor because we decide to.

I am bad about spending money. If there is something I want I will shop around and wait on sales. Its stuff like food that I spend a lot of extra money on. Hungry? Lets go get something to eat. I may go get a burger or pizza instead of fixing something at home.

Like boogie2988 says, if you can get some money in the bank, it provides a safety net and peace of mind.

It was about 2 and a half weeks ago that I was cleaning out my truck – it needed to be washed, the inside vacuumed, and the storage compartments of the doors cleaned out. While I was cleaning out the compartments in my trucks doors, I noticed I had collected several throw away items:

Some stickers – when I see the local volunteer fire departments collecting money I will stop and throw some money in the boot. The amount of money is usually just the change out of the door, but its better then nothing. In return for the donation, the fire fighters will usually give you a little sticker of some kind. Why do I need a sticker at all, its just going to be thrown away. The fire departments could have saved a lot of money be not handing out stickers – that were just going to be thrown away.

A calculator – it seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turned out to be a waste of money. One of those door-to-door sales guys came to my job a few years ago. He had this really neat looking calculator, and it was only like $3 or $5. So I said “sure, why not.” The calculator was bought, put in my truck, and might have been used 2 or 3 times.

One of the keys to marketing, is to convince people that they “have” to buy your product. That somehow, the life of the consumer will improve if they buy a certain product. Then there is the mindset that we “have” to have the latest and greatest products on the market.

I know this certain guy who is big into computer games. When a new processor or video card is released, he has to buy it just to have the best. I’am sorry, but I can not afford to buy the newest video card, memory, processor or even the newest games. My last computer was a single core AMD3200 with 1.5 gigs of memory – and it lasted about 3 years. While stores like Best Buy were selling dual and quad core computers, I was still using a single core system.